Thursday, September 13, 2012

Hoof Angles and a Wedding Teaser

Earlier in the week, a couple of my favorite bloggers (smazourek at It's Quarters For Me and Kristen at Sweet Horse's Breath) did posts on hoof angles. I recently trimmed Lilly's hooves and hadn't posted any pictures, so I thought I'd post a couple for comparison. I probably should have done a better job of cleaning them up after I was done trimming... I'll do better next time!

Left front...

Her heels on the left front are still a little more under-run than I'd like, but when you look at the sole view (of which I have no pictures because they were all blurry), her heels are actually pretty close to where they should be. This is the trouble hoof, though, and I can't always trim it the way I want to because there's not much to work with. I don't want to sit her heels down so far that it makes her sore, so we just do little bits at a time. I would say she still has a ways to go, but I'm not sure her hooves will ever look "normal" because of the amount of issues she's had with them since she was a foal.

Right front...

I'm much happier with the way this hoof looks and it's so easy to trim compared to her left front. There are still parts of her hairline (on both hooves) that look a bit jammed, but they're a lot better than before. She's a work in progress (and so am I as far as trimming is concerned). She's actually been quite sound the past couple of months too. Can she canter over stones up and down the driveway? No, of course not, but I can walk her from her pasture into the barn over large, pointy rocks and only if she steps on something really big does she take ouchie steps. It's been a long time coming for her to be comfortable walking over that kind of material. I didn't even need to ask the BO to grade her a path this time around!

And finally, here's a picture of one of the chair hangers that will line the aisle at my wedding. I didn't make these, although I started out thinking I was going to, but then reality hit me and I started farming this stuff out.

Starfish Pew Hangers

These beauties were made for me by Suzanne at Serendipity Bridal and I think they turned out perfectly! The dark purple and lime ribbon colors were spot on. I love them!

8 comments:

I have been trying to educate myself about horse hooves and I really like the info (and latest video) on "It's Quarters for me" too. My farrier is coming next week and I'm going to post photos and ask him a few questions.

Photos are fantastic... I always take before and after photos so I can see what I've changed. You see a LOT more on the photos than you can with your naked eye too. I'll look at her hoof at the barn and think I've done a great job, and then when I look at the pictures at home I'm like "wow... need to fix THAT spot!"

Feet are always a work in progress...they change with the seasons/feed/health/etc., etc.

I've got a bunch of crap going on with a few of my horses right now and really need to do a post on it. :(

LOVE the chair streamers! Would never have thought of those colors, but they look awesome together. Can't wait to see it all put together...of course, you'll be a little busy that day...getting married and all (LOL), but don't forget to have someone take random pictures. ;-)